Best ways to find a data plan for international travel!

Today on the High Tech Texan Show:

• What these tariff means now for buying or holding off on products
• Best ways to find a data plan for international travel
• Car reviews: 2025 Ford Explorer ST-Line, self-driving rideshare services

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is Michael Garfi.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Michael Garfield, Michael Garfields joining in the high Tech Texan.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Its to make.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
Life easier, new technology, and Michael Garfield has something you
might like.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans. Three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
iHeartRadio Act. Now you're high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield, oh names.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
As the Morning Dude gives way to the afternoon Sun.
We welcome you to the Masters, well, the master of
all radio shows for twenty three years on the weekends
here in Texas. Though I got to chat a bit
earlier this week with Jim Nance. That's about as close
as you'll get to him now. At last, Today is

(01:09):
moving day at the Masters. The good news My show
will end soon enough, so you can watch the TV
coverage from Augusta. So until then, let's suck it up
and buckle up for some fun, informative few hours of
your questions and my musings. My name is Michael Garfield,
so let's roll. Well, what a week it was, man,

(01:32):
What a week for those of you who went to
the Final four in San Antonio. We got to see
three incredible games. It was really nice to see a
lot of people who either I know or who listened
to me. You know, my show just started in San
Antonio a few months ago. I do live in Houston.
The Houston Cougars were there. I was covering it for

(01:54):
a few TV stations. I got some amazing access and
so if you are kind of a follower on Instagram
or Facebook, you could see some of the shots that
I got from the court, from the pregame parties, the
locker rooms on the good days for the UH Cougars
on Saturday night and the very sad ones on Monday night.

(02:14):
But congrats to the Florida Gators, and again such a
heartbreak for the hometown Houston Cougar's. I did get a
little sleep, you hear my voice is a little wary
still after all of the fun stuff, from laughing with
Charles Barkley to acting a fool at the FanFest. It
was a major sports event that puts San Antonio in

(02:35):
Texas in the spotlight. Whether it was perfect and overall
was a fun weekend. Now we move on, we have
the Masters weekend and as a longtime listeners should know
right now the only major sporting event that is left
on my bucket list to attend. Not yet, not this year.
We shall see. Also this weekend we have the start

(02:58):
of Passover. For those of you that celebrate the holiday
and tradition. I hope you have luck in finding matza,
as every grocery store I visited it seemed to be
out of it, or maybe it's just too expensive due
to the tariffs imposed on Israel. Oops, did I go there?
Good Friday? Easter there next week, which leads to one
of my favorite days of the year, the Monday after Easter,

(03:22):
when the Reese's eggs go on sale for at least
fifty percent off. So, my friends, let the games begin,
Let the show begin. Here comes the phone number. We
are here for you. Should you have comment, should you
have questions about what to buy and what to hurry
up and buy, because people seem to be very scared
about the prices on many things, certainly electronic devices going up.

(03:44):
It is three four six twenty nine texts and that's
three four six two nine t e x A M
we do list. Thanks listeners for tuning in over the
air on our flagship station in Houston. KPRC nine fifty
News Radio twelve hundred WAI. I met a lot of
you local listeners this past week when I was there

(04:05):
for the Final four, and everybody up in Dallas, the
Mighty Mighty eleven ninety Talk Radio eleven ninety. If you're
listening to the iHeartRadio app, we're live plausibly live the
replay on the podcast. If you do get a voicemail
when you call three four six twenty nine Texan, well
all you need to do is leave a voicemail. You

(04:25):
do give us the right to replay it and you
can answer, ask me in many questions or just comment
on anything that you need. You don't need to give
me crap to my Texas Longhorns. We're not in the
Final four, but at least we did have one almost
at two teams. Texas Tech actually made the Final four.
But it is good. Houston is not on the docket.

(04:46):
San Antonio is not on the docket for the Final
four to return. However, North Texas Arlington actually is on
the docket about I think it's about four years. It
will be there. And so there you go. There is
your sports update, your holiday update. It is now time
to talk ah the word of the year so far. Tariffs. Woo,

(05:08):
What a week baby. It was this past Wednesday, right
at midnight, or maybe it was eleven eight pm Central
Time when the tariffs on eighty plus whatever countries were
supposed to go into effect. They actually did for about
ten or twelve hours until your President Donald Trump pressed
pause on reciprocal tariffs. Except he upped the levy on

(05:35):
goods from China to one hundred and twenty five percent
in the latest escalation of the two countries trade war.
Bottom line, people, you should expect to pay more for
your next iPhone should you get an iPhone. Trump announced
there was a ninety day pause ninety day because he
said China has not as strong suggestion retaliated in any

(06:00):
shape or form. That is a quote. China, by the way,
is where Apple produces most of his products. They've responded
to each of Trump's tariff hikes this year by increasing
tariffs on US products. Telling you right now and first
time I've let you know, the plans are in place
as of right now, I am planning to go. This
is not a joke. I am planning to go to

(06:20):
China in about a week. I have never been to China.
I am going as part of a journalistic tour to
a city or two where a lot of Chinese products
are made. There's a number of different agencies who are
taking public relations agencies there who want to have a
little meat and rate and show me for one, as

(06:42):
a technology journalist and someone who really oversees and reviews
a lot of products in the technology world that are
made in China. The plan is for me to go
over there. Hopefully they do not teariff my return to
the United States because they may not be able to
afford to come back. That is how bad this hardball
is with China right now. Apple, let's get it back

(07:03):
to this has started to move some of its manufacturing
to other countries, including India and Vietnam. Those countries were
supposed to be hit with their own tariffs also Vietnam
with the forty six percent tariff, India with the twenty
six percent increase, but those were among the reprieved on trees.
As of last Wednesday, Trump did leave in place at
ten percent baseline tariff on imports. This is tough. It's

(07:26):
tough to figure out. I don't know any answers. If
you're in the market for a new Apple device. If
you are in line, then you're waiting to sign up
for the new Nintendo Switch to waiting list that is
supposedly going to be released in June, that has been
hot on hold. So the question, and I'm getting right
now an email. I'm look at him coming in. Dear Garf.

(07:47):
Love your show. I love how you stay away from politics,
but I understand how you have to weave them in.
My name is Jesse. I live in San Antonio. Sorry
didn't get to meet you this past weekend in Final four.
But question how much could iPhone prices go up with tariffs? Well,
here's my guess. If the full cost of tariffs are
passed on to shoppers, we'd probably see a one hundred

(08:09):
and twenty five percent increase in prices on Apple products
that are produced in China. How could tariffs on China
increase iPhone prices? Well, let's put it this way. iPhone
sixteen promax right now, twelve hundred dollars here in the US.
It's not it's not even cheap to start with. If

(08:30):
you get the full promax, it's twelve hundred dollars. You
add a one hundred and twenty five percent tariff, which
adds fifteen hundred dollars. Ladies and gentlemen, my dear listeners,
the new price of an iPhone sixteen Pro Max could
be twenty seven hundred dollars for a freaking phone. Right now,

(08:52):
it's twelve hundred. It could go hood go up to
twenty seven hundred dollars if Apple passes that entire tariff
to consumers are they don't know? There's a lot more
that goes into the price of an iPhone. That's simply
where it's manufactured. Apple sources components for its products from
just the long list of countries. They could face tariffs

(09:15):
after the pause too. We don't know what. Quick question
for the break garf well, other tech products also see
price hikes. Smartphones probably not the only device expected to
see prices increase because of the tariffs. Best Buy and
Target they warned consumers last month to expect higher prices
for everything. Apple announced one hundred percent price cut on
its new MacBook Air last month. All right, that's a

(09:35):
day after the last round of tariffs took effect. All right,
what's going on? We'll talk more about that. Should you
buy tech now to avoid tariffs? Later. I'm gonna let
you steal on that for another three and a half
minutes until we come back. My name is Michael Garfield.
This is the I Teck contention.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
Show, Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Big question that I'm getting other than hey, Garth, how
do you think the Cougars are gonna do next year?
Since they came oh so close in the final four
this year, the poll says, other than Duke Houston Cougar's
They're not They're not losing a ton of starters. They
could come back again, and they are ranked number two
to actually take it all the way. By the way,
I like gambling and I love sports. That's why I

(10:37):
talk about sports just as much as I do technology.
Here on the High Tech Text and Show. Michael Garfield,
nice to have you here, Thank you for returning and
coming back. Three weeks ago, I went to my annual
March Madness trip in Las Vegas, thirty six straight years
of me and eight college guys. We always go the
first weekend of March Madness. I place a future bets

(11:01):
because I think that's the you know, listen, I place
a lot of bets on like in game bets and
what's gonna happen, you know, to this game. But I
do place before the tournament starts with the odds of
the longest because they still you know, they still have
to get the winners, still has to get through, you know,
six opponents, six games. I put two bets down. I
put two bets down. I bet University of Houston to

(11:22):
win it all. I bet University of Florida Gators to
win it all. Boom. So by the time Saturday night
rolled around and we knew who was going to be
in the championship, it was Florida and uh, I was
guaranteed to win. Now I was hoping you h would
win because there was longer, I had more, a bigger payout.
UH was six to one, six to one, all right

(11:46):
to win the championship. When I put money down Florida Gators,
I got a plus three fifty. So now I'll take
the money and run. I would love to have the
UH Cougar's one, but that's how you do some gaming.
So in no way, I'm buying beers next time I
see it, people, uh, until I actually uh. Let me
put it this way, I have to go to Vegas
to cash the ticket out or actually may have to

(12:07):
mail it in then I will be buying buying beers
phone number here if you it's an interactive radio show
on a weekend, Master's Weekend three four six twenty nine
text and three four six two nine te x a
N Callum Reid. He is on the other side of
that glass. Potentially Callum if you feel like picking up
the phone having me talk to some callers. If my

(12:27):
voice holds up, we're potentially happy to talk to him.
I do want to continue the tariff issue as I
did in segment number one. If you are planning to
buy a new iPhone, maybe a gaming console, MacBook, other technology,
buying it now could save you money if you don't

(12:50):
have the cash on hand and you need to use
a credit card to buy it now, pay later type
of thing, just to avoid the tariffs. Make sure you
have the money to cover the cost before you start
accruing interest. Credit cards average right now is more than
twenty percent. You know the whole thing. Listen, I'm not
a financial guy, but I'm just telling you what's going on.

(13:11):
One way to save on products, maybe Apple products, maybe
other products, even if prices go up. This is something
that you probably know and I talk about it, but
I'll remind you again by last year's model instead of
the newest release. If you're if you aren't planning to

(13:32):
upgrade in the next year, there really is no reason
to rush out and bias new smartphone. So think about it.
I told you before the break. If they're right now,
China has what a one hundred and twenty five percent
tariff that that's solid. Everything else kind of went down
or is on hold. But right now China one hundred
and twenty five percent. So iPhone sixteen promacs current price

(13:57):
twelve hundred dollars add the tariff. Should they pass that
entire tariff along to consumers, that phone is gonna go
from twelve hundred dollars to twenty seven hundred dollars. If
Apple passes that price on the entire way to the consumers.
I don't know if they can do that, But that's
an iPhone sixteen. Look at the iPhone fifteen. iPhone fifteen

(14:17):
currently is seven hundred dollars. Now, if they do pass
that one hundred and twenty five percent tariff, the seven
hundred dollars phone is gonna be fifteen hundred and fifty
dollars or so, but fifteen hundred and fifty dollars is
a heck of a lot less than twenty seven hundred
dollars by last year's model. Maybe buy a used phone.
This may be the era of let's go on some

(14:39):
of these online sites that have trade in models, where
you could people trade in their devices, laptops, tablets, it's
not even it's more than technology. They may trade in lawnmowers,
do the eBay thing. Maybe it's time that we're not
gonna buy anything new, We're gonna pause on that stuff
and maybe just maybe we could actually buy things at

(15:02):
a discount of price because they're used, slightly legently used.
Should you do that? You want to do your research.
You want to look at photos. You want to see
that the seller either a whether you have bought from
that cellar before, where that is a trusted seller. You
want to you know, do some research. Don't just say,
you know, look at a price, going oh, here's an

(15:24):
iPhone fifteen, it's only four hundred dollars or something like that.
It could be cracked, it could be smashed. You want
to look at the condition and so again tips on
what you need to do, because now I think people
are realizing. I think they've realized it this year. I mean,
starting with the eggs. You know, the cost of a
dozen eggs went up to eight bucks. They're a little
cheaper right now since we're an egg heaven between passover,
the hard bowled eggs and you know, hard boiling and

(15:45):
dyeing eggs for Easter. Right now, I mean now they're
down a smidge, but there's still expensive. People are really
minding their money on what they're doing. And actually, I
got some numbers. This is what I do, numbers, buying
howbits I'm learning right now and reading some studies on
US adults buying habits. Right now, US adults feel most

(16:08):
pressured to buy electronics, smartphones, laptops. Home impliance is out
of fear that tariffs are going to lead to price increases.
Thirty eight percent of shoppers have felt pressure to make
purchases before tariffs raid prices. One in ten shoppers made
big ticket purchases late last year or early this year

(16:31):
to try to avoid tariff induced price jumps. Twenty seven
percent of shoppers are delaying big purchases over five hundred dollars.
On the other hand, eighteen percent are planning to shop
sales this year. Sales. You have to look at sales.
Those are adults now compared to Gen X and Baby boomers,

(16:58):
who are older adults. Let's call my age. I'm gen X.
Younger generations are feeling even more pressure. Forty eight percent
of Gen C forty five percent of millennials said they
felt pressure to make purchases to avoid If I understand
the pressure, I understand the anxiety. This now becomes common

(17:19):
consumer sense. Do you need it? And I use these
two terms often. I tell you as a father, I've
taught my three sons best too. There's a difference between
needing and wanting, right, do you need it or do
you just want it? A lot of the things, the gadgets,

(17:41):
the the shiny stuff, the things that I talk about,
the things that I review, their want their want. I mean,
if you really place it. Do you want or do
you need? A mobile phone? And that's a serious question.
When they first came out many many, many years ago,
it was just a want because we needed communication and

(18:01):
we had wired phones, and we had office phone numbers
and home phone numbers. Did we need mobile phones? When
they became necessities back in the mid to late nineties,
we didn't need them. Now they're wont not obviously that
it's going down. We that has become our normal and
only communication when it comes to talking on things right now, well, yes,

(18:24):
you know, we could you know, do things now via
the internet. You could use you know what's app on
your You could use Facebook Messenger on your computer, on
your laptop. Do you need a phone per se? No,
you do actually need connectivity. You need you need a
cell data connection or you need an Internet connection. So
buying you need to stop, you need to wait. So

(18:46):
we're gonna take a break, you know. The phone number.
Try to move on to different subjects because it seems
like I'm ragging on people and I'm just making people
the more depressed. I don't know, I'm still depressed. I
still have yet to be gone to a master's and
thus I have to suck it up and watch it
here on TV. But that is life people, phone number
three four six twenty nine, Texsan three four six two nine, Texsan.
My name is Michael Garfield. Then we do thinks we're listening.

(19:08):
We're gonna be right back. When's the last time anybody

(19:35):
has been to Vegas? I was there about the three
weeks ago, right at the start of March Madness, and
it was fine. And people ask me, I go to
Vegas generally three to four times a year, and I've
done that for four held, am I right now for
forty one years. I've been in Vegas four decades. Man
that that place has changed generally when I got I

(19:57):
can count on one hand the number of shows that
I've seen. You know, everybody goes to Vegas for shows,
and let's you know, then whatever. I go with buddies
generally and we go March Madness. All we do is
sit there and we watch basketball games.

Speaker 5 (20:12):
We go.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I go to a ces cous from electronic show. I
go up and down the aisle as I walk. It's
a lot of work stuff. Maybe I'll go in the
summer again with buddies, will sit by the pool and
do nothing. I don't really care to go to shows.
I want to gamble. I want to stand at a
craps table, have a few cocktails, get some sun, and
that's it. And and if people who truly truly know me,

(20:32):
you know me, that's it. I don't go. I don't
really don't go off the strip. I don't go in
to go in near ill advised places I'm not supposed to.
I'm I'm that's about it. The Sphere was built and
complete it about what finally about the year and a
half of the game. It was about a year ago.
I think it was a little like fourth last year.
It was two years ago. But I saw that thing

(20:53):
being built for years and years and years. Has anybody
been to the Sphere? So I've been to the sphere
one and it was CEES a year and a half ago,
which now I think about it, it's the Sphere has
been opening a year and now two years the Samsung
had an event at CES and I went there and
it's it's it really is an amazing place. It's that

(21:14):
it's it's owned by Madison Square Garden out of New York,
Jim Dolan. He created it, spent billions of dollars. It's unbelievable.
It's still at two hundred and seventy degrees. You know,
of just projection and you got concerts, you got you too.
You got the Eagles there right now, the grateful Dead.
Whatever the point is, did you see what they what

(21:35):
they're doing right now? They're going, I say they and
I it's it's really Google and the Sphere folks Spear Studios.
They've partnered with Google along with a few other companies
over here, and they are getting ready to release a
special version of The Wizard of Oz to be shown
inside the Sphere. And it's not really it, but they

(22:00):
have to remaster the film. I mean the film was.
I think it came out with nineteen thirty nine black
and white in color. Everybody knows The Wizard of Oz.
It's it's really not a remastering the film. It's it's
actually more of a reinvention because they have to really
rebuild the film seen by scene to feel the spears
gigantic one hundred and sixty thousand square foot wrap around

(22:24):
led screen. And it was a pretty big technological challenge.
And I was reading about it, and I think they
had a preview. Google had a preview a little snippet
last week, and I don't know. The original film was
shot in four x three, which is how you know TV.
You know, ratios used to be kind of a square
type of thing. Obviously you see a lot most all

(22:46):
TVs right now are sixteen by nine, which is more
horizontal high definition. I mean it was when they shot it,
it was never intended for a two hundred and seventy
degree immersive experience. So what Google had to do they
had to what's called out paint to generate the visuals
way beyond the original frame and more than ninety percent

(23:07):
of the movie I believe was altered or extended to
really transform this, this movie into the sphere as a
unique format. I mean, you talk about an ambitious project
and I don't know when it's coming out, but I'm
sitting here thinking, let's back this up. It's Wizard of
Oz alone is a freaky, deky movie, especially as a kid.

(23:30):
I remember it in probably most every one of my
listeners remember watching it, and it would it used to
be on television. I believe it. It was on CBS
every single year, right around the end of March. I
remember this from the seventies and eighties. It was the
end of March. I don't know why I was into March,
but they just showed it that It was right before
Easter is something I nothing new with Easter, but that

(23:52):
was it. All I know is can you imagine sitting
in this sphere with one hundred and sixty thousand square
foot wrap around led screen with the freaking flying monkeys
coming straight at you. Hell no, no, no, no, no, no,
no no. I who is not scared of flying monkeys.

(24:14):
No one likes flying monkeys. No, I don't want to
see that. I do not need a flying monkey the
size of a house flying at me. So I would
debate you. So it's if I was invited to this thing.
I don't know. I know, I know the movie top
to bottom. I know when the flying monkey scenes are.
I'm like, I have to close my eyes. Anyway, that's

(24:35):
neither here nor there. Michael Garfield is the name. This
is the high tech texting show Again. Things I talk
about to start a conversation and you could finish the conversation.
Three four six twenty nine Texan. Three four six two
nine Texan. That's how you do it with me. Speaking
of kids, you let your kids or if you're a kid,

(24:56):
how young were your kids or how young were you
when you started doing social media? I think when Facebook
came out there was a minimum eight there's still maybe
a minimum there's a minimum age. Was it twelve years
old or something? Or do I saw this one? This
is interesting parents, if you're worried about your kids on

(25:17):
social media, Meta, which is the company who owns Facebook
and Messenger and Instagram and all that stuff. They are
bringing what's called teen accounts. Instagram already has it, but
they're going to automatically move younger teens to these new accounts,

(25:37):
and they come with mandatory periphtal control features and restrictions
on who they can message and interact with. And from
the last I heard, you're not going to be able
to interact with flying monkeys. They first introduced this feature,
I think it was last fall on Instagram and now
fifty four million teens have the more lockdown accounts, and

(25:59):
I think the teen accounts on Facebook and Messenger are
going to operate similarly, so the teens won't be able
to interact with unknown contacts. They're not going to change
certain private privacy settings unless a parent approves the action.
And parents, by the way, you're also gonna be able
to monitor their child's screen time metric and their friends' list.

(26:19):
Man big brothers looking at you, teens under sixteen? Are
you under sixteen? So driver's license and you get to
have your full account on Instagram and Meta owned services
when you're sixteen. That has something to countdown for teens
under sixteen are going to need printal permission to start

(26:40):
a live broadcast. Okay, I get it, and listen. I'm
I'm fine with this. I say, I'm fine with this
because all my boys are well over sixteen years old.
I have passed the point where personally, and I'm just
saying personally, I don't really need to concern myself. I

(27:01):
have three and they're they're in their twenties and ones
there and when's thirty? I asked, we'll call them adults.
Probably the way that we raised them, good decisions, never
any issues or troubles because they grew up maybe towards
they were older, before social media really got really interesting.

(27:22):
And now my kids, like at least my youngest now
is an influencer, ironically, is that? So think about this
A little question for you over here. We got about
another minute or two before the end of the segment.
Sixteen years old when I was going up in Texas,
and again, you can get a driver's license at sixteen
years old, at least in this state. That was the
countdown to when life began. At least for me, it

(27:46):
was TikTok, TikTok. And the only reason I wanted. I
don't even know why, but the only reason I wanted
a driver's license and I was I'll go back to
when I was ten, eleven, twelve thirteen. I wanted to
be able to drive to Burger king myself to a
burger I'm an idiot, I know, but that's it. That's it.
I mean, my my birthday's in February, so my birthday

(28:11):
came kind of in the middle of the school year.
So I had friends who were several months old to meet,
so they got their driver's license. And my best friend
growing up, he had a hardship license. He got his
license at fifteen, so he was driving me around, hanging
out doing whatever a year before I could. But sixteen
was the age. Now here's the question three four, six,

(28:32):
twenty nine Texan at sixteen, would you rather and you
got one choice, would you rather drive or have full
usability on all social media platforms. I want you to
think about this right now. Times have changed. I say
times have changed me because here's another analogy. I would

(28:52):
rather lose my wallet than lose my phone. And I
never thought I would say that years ago, because if
you ever lost your wallet, I've lost my wallet. Maybe
once or twice in my life. Credit cards, driver's license,
you got to start a new cancer credit cards. I
thought your life was over. I mean it just takes months. Nowadays,
it's your phone. If you lose it's just as valuable,
if not more valuable, than you're will Let's go back

(29:14):
to my original question at sixteen, would you rather have
your driver's license or just say I am an adult
on social media. I could do live broadcast, I can
have my contact list, my friends list, I could do
anything you want. I'm gonna tell you right now, I
bet it's the social media because there are some kids
right now. And if I don't know, if you're let's see,

(29:35):
I'm gonna go back ten years ago when my kids
kind of were around sixteen years old. My middle son
did not want to get his driver's license. We had
to force our middle son to get his driver's license
at sixteen, just didn't want it. First one got it
on his birthday when he was sixteen. Second one comes
around it's like, eh, I really don't care, It's like,

(29:56):
what are you doing? And then the third one he
certainly got it when he probably on his birthday when
he was six Dan, what there are some kids who
just don't even care about driver's lizes right now, it's
I listen. Every every kid is different, and I know
my kids are goofballs and oddballs like their father, But
I know there are more people out there. I'd love
to hear your thoughts on this. Which one would you choose?

(30:16):
Three four six two nine T E x A N.
That is the phone number. If not, you can go online,
go to your ex, Twitter and all that other fun
stuff on social media where I am over sixteen and
you could comment. Just look for high tech text at
h I G H T E C H T E
x A N. We'll come back with some answers, response
and more stories right here on the high tech text and.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
Showed it is Michael.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I do thank you were just a few minutes before
the top of the hour here, and I hope you're
having a wonderful Master's weekend. I will hopefully. Actually, you
know you can keep one eye on the actually you
can keep two eyes on your TV in one ear
at least two years right here live radio broadcast in Houston,
San Antonio, Dallas. If not, just take one of the

(31:23):
earbuds out and you can listen to me while you're
listening to the sultry voices of sultry voice of Jim Nantz.
Hello friends, how are you? Hello? Friends? I am Michael
Garfield Travel I mentioned earlier this hour. I as of
right now, I probably am going to China next week

(31:44):
for a week or so for a business journalistic type
of trip to do some research over there. I don't
know't they're gonna let me back into the United States
because of the tariffs. I so I'm gonna have to
pay a lot, and if it's a lot, lot lot,
I'm probably gonna be stuck in China. But neither here
nor there. This is the start of travel season. We
got spring, we got summer, and I get the questions

(32:05):
all the time, Hey Garf, what what's the best way
to keep in touch your cell phones? Do I need
roaming fees if you travel, especially if you travel internationally?
So and I need to worry about this myself right now,
I at least think about it and not worry. But
if you're headed overseas and you don't want to rack
up roaming charges, there are a few ways to stay connected,

(32:28):
all right. The easiest option is look at your current
wireless plan, keep your current wireless plan because if you
have a major carrier sometimes they offer some of them
offer international day passes. I means you can keep your
number and you can keep your data plan while you
were brought. Now roughly, I think they're around like if

(32:52):
you have AT and T, if you have Horizon, I
believe you can get something for like twelve dollars per
day for an international day pass or travel paths or
something like that. I think T Mobile has a number
of different international roaming at no extra charge. Now, the
speeds may vary, so you do need to check some plans.
Whatever you have, check your plan because they could include

(33:15):
some roaming days and that makes the option pretty good
for short trips, all right. Now, then there are you
know virtual you know, you know m V and o's
virtual carrier carriers moment Mobile and Visible. They also international
offer international book plans too. When I went last year,
I did too back to back international trips. I was

(33:37):
in Germany and then I went to where I was.
I was in London and I actually got an e
SIM card. I did that for the first time ever.
They're digital SIM cards that you can download right on
your phone. Now we know what a SIM card is.
I think you do. It's a little tiny physical card
is the size of like your pinky fingernail, that flip

(33:57):
that fits into your phone. Most all phones have these.
That's technically that is your phone number on that card.
You can take that card and you could pop it out,
use that little device, that little pen thing that comes
with it, and you could take that little card and
pop it from phone to phone to phone, and it
transfers your phone number. That's how I flip phones all

(34:18):
the time. I get new phones to test. I want
my regular number. I just popped my SIM card out
and I put it in. But there's also an e
SIM card, and phones nowadays allow you to have an
actual SIM card but also one, if not two, E
SIM or digital SIM numbers. We're not going to call
them cards because they're physically not a car. So if

(34:40):
you have an iPhone over the past i'd say four
or five years, Samsung Galaxy of the past four or
five years, you're good to go because they do have
these digital SIM opportunities. I believe there's tons of companies
out there. One is called s A I l Y.

(35:02):
There's Gigsky. I think that's the one I use. I
use gigsky g I g sky erro low Ai r Alo.
Just do your little Google search for E S I
M E SIM cards over there. Now, most E SIM cards,
and I remember, I think I fell into this trap.
Most E SIM cards they're data only data versus voice calling.

(35:29):
So when you arrive at your destination and you turn
on your phone, data is gonna start coming out, which
means you can get email, which means you can serve
the Web. But generally, if you just get the data
only pans, you're not going to get any phone calls.
Now at that point, what you want to do to
make calls? Number one, you could pay more. You could

(35:51):
pay more for voice so you could talk, or you
could start using other things like Wi Fi calling. I
did this lot. I remember, I had data only. It's
kind of old school, but that's about the cheapest thing.
You put your phone in airplane mode, you turn Wi
Fi on, and you start walking around looking for hotspots.

(36:15):
There are hotspots in most I don't want to say most,
every place on Earth right now. No, if you're going
to go to the Seringeti in the middle of Africa
or something late in no, No, you're not going to
do that. But if you're in a big city, you're
going to walk into an airport, a cafe, a restaurant,
a hotel, a library, a shopping mall store. It is

(36:35):
Wi Fi, ubiquitous, Wi Fi, Wi Fi Wi Fi. When
you're on Wi Fi, and if they're free networks, which
is phenomenal, you should be able to use your I Message,
your Google Message, and if you have enabled Wi Fi
calling and texting on your phone, you're set to go.
I use What's app. What's app is I'm not calling
it a lifesaver. Whats app is incredibly useful. What's app

(36:59):
is like it's also you can use Facebook the messenger too.
You could do video calls. But again you do need
to have the connectivity. And so before you travel you
need to, you know, think about what your game plan is.
Where you're going. Are you in a country that's you
know it's big. Are you going to you know, Rome,
Are you going to go to you know, somewhere in Canada?

(37:21):
Are you gonna go wherever it is that you know
where you're gonna be walking around in a city or
in areas where there's gonna be Wi Fi. At that point,
you really don't need to get any other types of
you know, you know, sell extra service that you know
it's going to give you the data plane if you're
if you're fine with that, So before you go, look
for some apps like that. There's those Wi Fi maps

(37:44):
that can help you find free networks that are nearby.
Look like download offline maps, Google maps or Apple maps
for the suit of your business so you can navigate
you you know before even if you don't have a
cell phone signal live fi. Just a few tips before
you go, make sure you have a passport and make
sure you got this. You know, you've got to star
on your driver's license because you know you've got to
be good to go and offer. So by the way,

(38:06):
if you do have an extra seat next to you
and you want a companion, I'm pretty I'm available. I
can do my show from anywhere. My kids rolled up,
I don't have any dog.

Speaker 6 (38:15):
I can just leave.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
I'm I'm gone in a snap. It's giving me a
head up. I should be good to go. One hour
of the book, one more hour ago. The high Tech
Texans Show. Michael Garfield is the name.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Is Michael Garfer, Michael Garfield, Michael Garfields joining.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
Yeah, the high Tech Texan.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
To make life easier technology and Michael Garfield has something
you might like.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
On Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans three decades
helping you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on
the iHeartRadio after Now You're high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Halfway through the high Tech Texan Show, say with me,
my friends. We are a halfway to halfy hour. And
it is a great weekend to celebrate a happy hour
because it is the Masters weekend. I think I've lost
a little of my voice, so I can't do my
big Hello friends, Jim Nance. But I actually I saw
Jim Nantz last weekend I was in I was in

(39:40):
San Antonio, Hello, San Antonio. WAI News Radio twelve hundred,
where my show is broadcast every weekend. It's up there
for the final four and Jim Nance and esteemed alumnus
of the University of Houston Cougar's where they were in
the final four and and over the you know, just

(40:02):
quick celebrity siding, several mini celebrity sidings. Actually in the
world of sports, mostly the I've thought if there is
a big sporting event somewhere. I mean, I'm into that stuff.
I mean, I've been to four Super Bowls. I've been
to probably this is my tenth final four. I have
been to US Open Tennis a few times, Kentucky Derby, Preakedness,

(40:23):
probably four or five National Championship football games, countless bowl games.
It just goes on and on and on. I've had
the opportunity to do that, and I just love sports. Yes,
I love technology too, so anyway, but I also am
in the media industry, and so I am enamored, I
am a wanna bee, I am jealous. I am you

(40:44):
would ever ever call it. But if there is a
famous sports broadcaster, because those are the voices in the
faces of of how I grew up and what I
wanted to do and what I still want to do,
I mean I'll go back. You know Jim Nantz, who
is mean poundful Hound easily one of if not with
this well over thirty year illustrious career of doing football,

(41:07):
of doing basketball, of the March Madness, calling, of doing golf,
of the Masters, and we can go on and on
and on so over the over the years, every time
I've had an event, Super Bowls, I've had a media credential.
I got to interview him. The Final four was in
Houston two years ago, and the day I think there
was an off day and there was a pregame and

(41:27):
I was roaming the the NRG Stadium floor. He couldn't
have been a nicer guy. I just went up to
him and Jim Nantz actually because he went to the
University of Houston, he got his one of his first gigs.
I believe it was on Channel two, which is where
I got my first TV gig here many years ago,
but he was also on seven forty, our sister station,
seven forty, a m in Houston news radio station. So

(41:50):
that my lost leader of going up to him is like, Jim,
how are you. It's Michael. You know I worked at
you know, I work at iHeart and yet at seven
forty and Channel two just sits there. The last few
years ago, I had a four or five six minute
conversation with me. I asked him a few questions about
retiring from the March Madness boy. I mean, it was
just he could not have been nicer. And I've seen
him a few other times walking the streets of New

(42:10):
Orleans when there was a Final Four, all I know.
And again I'm not bragging over here, because if he
does not know my name, but he recognized my face.
And so it was Saturday night, it was the Final four,
Houston versus Duke. We're getting ready to play in that
second game that night. And so between the two games,

(42:31):
I was on the court and you know, there's sixty
four thousand people here in the in the in the
Alamo Dam, and sure enough, here comes Jim Nance. He's
wearing his University of Houston cougar's a sweatshirt. He's got
his young son with him walking around, and people start
recognizing when he was on the court, and they're yelling Jim, Jim, Jim,
and everybody's hugging him. You know. You know, he used
to work for CBS, you know, right there, so he
knows the crew, he knows everybody. And I'm about I

(42:54):
don't know, I'm about ten feet away, and I'm shooting
video obviously because there's Jim Nance. I want to get,
you know, photo like that true story. He sees me
and his eyes lit up and he points at me.
It's like, hey, what are you doing here? Hey, good
to see you don't know my name? But I know
he recognized my faith. Comes over to me. I am

(43:16):
not making this up. How you doing? Good to see you,
which is exactly what you're supposed to say when you
don't know somebody's name, and I'm like, Jim, how are you?
And we talked for maybe ten seconds because everybody's pulling around.
I got a picture, of course I did. I got
a selfie I post. If you follow me online, go
to my Instagram high tech texting and you can see
that stuff. But anyway, Jim was. I then walk up
and could not have been nicer. I walk out. There's

(43:38):
Iron Eagle. Iron Eagle took us place. Iron Eagle is
phenomenal play by play. He's the second lead announcing team
on CBS Football, right behind Jim Nansen, Tonio Romo. Iron
Eagle now does the lead play by play for the
Final Four in the March Madness, along with the basketball
and many other things. I go up to Iron literally

(44:00):
twelve minutes before tip off. He is about the broadcast
the biggest game that he does any given year, where
the world is watching, well, a lot of people are watching,
and I just said, I went up some high ario.
I introduced him. He's sitting in his seat, headset on.
He spent two minutes talking to me. It's just they're
nice people over there, so that's what. And then you

(44:21):
know there was Charles Barkley. I saw Will Fortey from
Saturday Night Live. He's actually starting in one of the
Capitol one commercials. And I actually saw the Capitol one guy.
He was there because Capital one like owns everything, I
mean everything ever where you go is Capitol one. Capital one,
Capital One with all the commercials and everything. But they
had a big presence in San Antonio. So I met
the Capital one guy. A tall dude is like six

(44:43):
six or something, very nice. I got a really weird
looking selfie with him because he's so dang tall. And
who else? Oh Kim Jong mister Chow from the Hangover,
Big Duke fan. He went to Duke. He there that
Saturday night rooting on his his his duchies. He's he

(45:05):
was on the floor somehow. And this you talk about
the Capitol Watt Capital one guy being tall, Ken Jung
is so much shorter in real life than you would
ever imagine. I'm not making fun because I could make
a fun of a tall guy. I'm not making fun
of a short guy. But oh my goodness, he was
like this tiny little man, very nice. And I go

(45:29):
up to him, because I'm not shy. I go up
to him and I said, Leslie chow, Oh, but did
you die? I mean, I'm quoting Hangover lines and he
truly it wasn't even a ha. He really was laughing.
He was really laughing, how are you? And I shook
his hand. Good of course, I said good luck to Duke.

(45:49):
I you know, of course I have to say that
to him. I took a picture with him too, and
again that's on there also. But it's evinced like this.
They bring out fun stuff. It was. The point is
it was great to have it in the state of
It was great to have the Final Four in San Antonio,
San Antonio. And I'll say it again, I have been
to San Antonio visiting all my life as a Texas boy.

(46:10):
Grew up in Dallas. My grandparents from Austin. We would always,
you know, shoot from Austin to San Antonio. We would
go to the Pearl Brewery where they would serve kids
a little root beer instead of beer samples. We would
go on the river, the river walk the boats and
everything you do. I have not been to San Antonio
in years other than this past weekend. It's been it's
been a while, but this it is one of the
best cities in the country to host events like this

(46:33):
because every single thing is walkable. I mean, the if
it brought people from all over the country, if not
the world media basketball fans to the city. The city,
the weather was phenomenal, but the fact is you can
walk to the Alamodome to almost every single downtown hotel.
The four different teams stayed at four different hotels, and

(46:55):
you know, there's there's buses. You know, they wrapped the
bus with the logos. There's the Duke, there's the there's
the Auburn, there's the Florida buses. And I bet the
teams were surprised because normally when you stay at a
team hotel, I mean you've got a twenty minute drive,
you're staying in the outskirts. The drive from their hotels
to the Almodome could not have been more than three
minutes with and that's even with a police escort. I mean,
They're like, what is this? How cool is this city?

(47:17):
It was very, very fun. So San Antonio, I love
you all. You're listening and also I appreciate all the
San Antonio and San Antonio whites of giving me some
ideas of where to eat, get the breakfast tacos and
some really nice and strong margaritas and some queso flamiato.
If you I'm going to be traveling a lot this summer,
probably gonna do a tour of Texas. If you want
me to come hit your town, let me know and

(47:39):
then maybe we can hook that up. All right, there
you go. See how much we talk about technology. This
is just a conversation between me and you. Phone number
here is three four six twenty nine, Texan. Three four
six two nine, Texan. When we come back, it's time
to talk about cars. That's right. Cars are technology. And
for fifteen plus years I do get to test drive cars, books, SUVs, cuvs, evs.

(48:03):
If you want me to test drive something, I will.
I will tell you what car I had this week.
Every single week for fifteen years, I get a brand
new car directly from your manufacturer to drive. It is
not a paid endorsement. I can just rag on them
or I can love them. I'll tell you what I
drove all the way to San Antonio and how impressed
I was with it. So I'm a hih check backing the.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Show number here because it's a call in radio show.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
If you haven't figured that out, Michael Garfield is the name,
and that number is three four six two nine T
e X A N. This portion of the show, we
are brought to you by the Beautiful One on the
full Cabo Bobs cop. I love Cobo Bobs. You know what.
There's one location in San Antonio. I was so busy
I didn't get to go to the San Antonio location,

(49:08):
but I could not wait to get back to Houston. Houston,
there are four locations Cabo Bobs and they are some
YOUM food baby. Going through the line, I get to
pick out one of my favorite tortillas and watch it
be pressed hot right in front of me. And I
go up and I'm a chicken guy. The way they
actually smoke and cook their chicken. On the Kamata Joe's.
They also have the beef and all the other fun stuff.

(49:30):
And I put a little black beans, a little rice,
some cheese, some quawk, and then of course I always
talk about the chips. I think they're probably the best chips,
the fresh hot chips. I will go easily once a
week probably on a Thursday, and I will get a
bag of chips and a caso to go so I
can snack on it the rest of the weekend. That's

(49:51):
how good they are. Cobo Bob's go check it out.
There's four locations in Houston, none in in Dallas, So
if you're listening to Dallas, sucks for you people, you
better drive down to all to Austin, I got a
lot of them. That's where their headquarters. So hello to
Arnold Lori Rios. They kind of help run. Actually they
do run all the awesome locations. You guys need to
build more around the city. It's running joke. They know

(50:14):
they do, and I think they're planning on it too,
So thanks. Then, once I get off the radio show,
I probably will run up to Cabo Bob's then put
my feet up and watch the rest of the Masters
this weekend. Here as we continue, when I drive up
to Cabo Bob's, it's time to talk about cars. You know,
I do drive test drive cars for you. I've done
it for fifteen years. I have test driven probably over

(50:37):
a thousand different vehicles. In those fifteen years. I get
at least once per week, and if you want to
hear some of my previous and past reviews, you can
go to Spotify and maybe on Apple, maybe on another
a few other podcast sites, but you'll listen to there
may be eight nine minute reviews where I will tell
you the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the

(50:59):
things about out to so many of the vehicles that
I get. This past week, I have been rolling around
in where I went to San Antonio and I'm driving
up to Cobo Bob's here soon in a new Ford Explorer.
It is it's been a while since I have test
driven a Ford Explorer. This is the twenty twenty five
version that I that I'm in, and specifically because there's

(51:21):
so many different models of the Ford Explorer. I mean
there's the guy, you got the XLT, you got the Limited,
you got the Platinum, I happen to be in the
Ford Explorer. St Line st dash l I n E.
St Line. What it is. This is their sportier performance style.

(51:41):
It's got some blacked out accents. It's got a pretty
unique different grill. It's got that st Line badge right there.
You could see it. But it's it's pretty strong and
it's it's pretty fast too, four hundred horse powers. So
I was able to get up and down it in
relatively quickly to get to San Antonio before I Columbus
or wherever I was. That was like freaking horrible. Went

(52:05):
down to one lane. I ten, come on text dot.
You know you got pretty much half of Houston shooting down.
I ten to go to San Antonio to watch the cougars.
This is the weekend. You couldn't say, you know what,
let's just kind of stop. You know, it's some repairing
and building on I ten. I know I can neither
here nor there. The Ford Explorer got me over there.

(52:26):
It's but it is a neat trim level. It's a
good sporty appearance, very sport tune, a powerful engine. The
Ford Explorers the st line. They start around forty five
thousand dollars. You're gonna get about twenty miles to break
down in the city twenty nine on the highway. It's
got a two point three liter four cylinder engine, all right,

(52:48):
tose about five thousand pounds too, which is not bad.
The uh it's very roomy, and I like what Ford
has done. I'm all about in terms of the technology
in these vehicles. I'm all about what I call screen
estate or dashboard real estate. If you've got a larger
vehicle and you've got a relatively large dashboard, if it's
an SUV or CUV, don't give me a stupid dinky

(53:11):
five inch six inch eight inch touchscreen and Fotama system.
You better max that thing out, And nowadays they do so.
This particular one on the Ford, the Explorer of the SD,
it has got a very nice I think it's about
a twelve inch touchscreen. And it's got an app too.
Do you know that it actually has an app to

(53:35):
control it? You know, you can remotely start the car
and see what's going on. But it's front row heated seats,
which I did not use. See I'm an AC guy.
See we're in Texas right here. I mean, I think
it's so funny. It's all we got heated seats. It
feels good like that. I get some vehicles with heated
steering wheels, you know, meat whatever like that. You better

(53:56):
blow some AC up my takas. I want some air
conditioning seats. But anyway, it's got the it's a twelve
inch digital cluster. Digital cluster means when you're driving as
a driver, and you're looking through your steering wheel and
you're looking at the odometer or this speed dometer and
all that that's called the digital cluster. This is twelve
point three inches, just crystal clear. It looks great. Then
when you go look at the enfotainment touchscreen that is

(54:19):
thirteen inches. It's a thirteen inch in the Ford explore
st line. So it's got everything from a head of
Bang and Oliphant's Bang and Oliver Bang and Olsen sound system,
ten speakers, it's got Hill Start Assist connect. And I'm
looking at some of my notes over here. Yes, it's
got your typical wireless Apple car Play in your Android Auto,

(54:40):
which I actually don't use. I am not, I'm an Android. Yes,
it's got Apple car Play and Android Auto. A lot
of people like that. I for some reason, I don't
know what it is. I don't use my Android Auto.
I have an Android phone, and if I had an
Apple I would not use Apple CarPlay either. I just
what it does when you plug it? Actually why wireless? Now?

(55:00):
It replicates a lot of things on your phone, so
you don't have to physically look at your phone, which
you shouldn't be looking at your phone when you're driving.
You now see it on the big thirteen inch touchscreen.
I don't use it for some reason. This actually did
have and I'll kind of in the chat with this.
This had Ford's Blue Cruise. And if you don't know

(55:21):
what Blue Cruise is, Blue Cruise that is the semi
autonomous semi way that you can drive a vehicle without.
And you know, and you know what cruise control is
where you could take your foot off the gas, you
push a button. That thing has been around for probably
thirty to forty years. But this is a different type

(55:42):
of crew system that General Motors GM. They call it
Super Cruise. Ford calls it Blue Cruise because a third
party company has mapped out about seven hundred and fifty
thousand miles of divided highway systems across the country. And
so thanks to your GPS, your car knows where your

(56:02):
vehicle knows where you are. And once you're on one
of these highways and I'm talking it ten, you can
talk you know, US fifty nine in Houston, er wherever
you are, a lot of these are already mapped. What
you do is you hit the button on the steering
wheel and then you could take your foot off the gas,
but you could also take your hands off the wheel,

(56:23):
and your vehicle using a camera system and radar, light
ar and all this other things, it will as safe
as it can. And you have to give it some
trust because the first time I used this thing about
two years ago, is like, this is whoo's freaky. It'll
start driving and it's crazy, and it really blows the
minds of your passengers who have never seen it. You

(56:44):
take your hands off the wheel. Now, how does it
know that you're not sleeping? How does it know that
you're not looking at the road? Do you have to
keep your eyes in the road. All of these vehicles
they have a camera that is installed that is looking
at your face. There is a camera looking back at
you that's mounted on the steering wheel column. So if

(57:05):
you turn your head to talk to your passenger or
you start nodding off, it knows to turn off that
automatic driving system. It could change lanes without you touching
this steering wheel and that still and I've driven this
thing for two these vehicles equipped with these crew systems

(57:28):
like this, it still blows me away for a while.
It knows if there is cars behind you on the
left behind you on the right. If it's clear and
you want to immate, it will automatically start switching lanes
without you. This particularly one has the what's Ford calls
it the blue Crew system. Generally, sometimes it's an upgrade.
Sometimes it's about three hundred three thousand, maybe thirty five

(57:50):
hundred dollars. Is it worth to you if you drive
the highway system a lot, if you commute a lot
on the highways and freeways, yes, it could be worth
the extra money. If you don't get on the freeway,
if you don't trust Big Brother AI computers or whatever,

(58:10):
probably not worth it for you to spend the extra money.
But I thought that was pretty cool. Overall, it's a
very I mean, I did Ford Explorers have been around
for a long time, and there was the Eddie Bauer
version of this, and remember these things. But good job
on Ford. This happened to be the Ford st line
for starting about forty five thousand dollars forty five fifty
thousand dollars. So again I am not I don't indoors dealerships.

(58:33):
I'm not even going to tell you a dealership to
go to. I personally like it. If you're in the
mood in the mode for a vehicle and hopefully it's
not going to be tariffed out that you know what,
go check it out. Love to hear your thoughts. If
you think I'm wrong, call me three four six twenty
nine text And when we come back, we're going to
talk about fully autonomous self driving vehicles that happened to
be in Austin that I saw this past weekend when

(58:56):
I popped up there from my round the World at
Texas and four day's trip. Michael Garfield, it is the
high Tech Texting Show. We do continue the High Tech

(59:25):
Texting Show about thirty more minutes left. Love to hear
from you to talking about cars still. You know, I
was just giving a little quick review of my twenty
twenty five Ford Explorer, and again just let you know,
none of this stuff is paid they I just get
to drive these cars on weekly basis and I can
just rag on them like there's nobody's business, and sometimes

(59:45):
I do. I actually did like the new Ford Explorer
the st line. I was talking about the semi autonomous
driving and if you have a Ford, the Ford calls
it Blue Cruise. I understand because blue that's their logo.
The oval shaped logo. It's the same type of system
that's in GM that GM uses, which is called super Cruise,

(01:00:08):
and it's semi autonomous versus autonomous. And I just got
an email over here and Michael, what's the difference between
semi autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles? Well, yeah, as the
name in suggest, you could probably guess fully autonomous vehicles
is baby. Now you've got your hands off, you got
your foot off the gas. You ain't doing nothing. I

(01:00:29):
mean you're almost like a passenger where there's no driver there.
And that's actually what's happening right now. It's if you've
been I was in Austin this past Monday. I popped
up there to do my stuff on Fox seven TV
and I was downtown and I was behind a Weamo vehicle.
And if you don't know what weaimo is Waymo and

(01:00:50):
Weimo has been around for several years and there they
just expanded it into Austin. But what it is it
is a Uber for lack of but it's a self
you know, hailing ride sharing service. I apologize for using Uber,
sorry left and everything else, but it's a self driving
vehicle that you can hail a ride from point A

(01:01:11):
to point B and self driving cars. They're becoming less
sci fi and very real world with companies like Waimo,
which is actually part of Google's parent company called Alphabet.
They're expanding into cities and countries. They expanded into Austin.
They actually just expanded it for the first international location

(01:01:33):
into Tokyo. If you ever make it out there, and
what you do is you they use Jaguars. They use
Jaguars Ipace. It's an EV vehicle. They did just announce
they're going to start partnering with Hyundai to bring its
Ionic five SUVs coming in there. But Weimo says it
already provides more than two hundred thousand paid trips each week.

(01:01:55):
Obviously kicked off in San Francisco. But if you're watching
or driving and you see these in the road, which
I did last Monday, and I was behind one in
a stoplight or a traffic light, it's kind of odd.
You know what they are, and they look a little
You certainly can tell what they are, it says Weymeo.
On the side, but you can see these radars and

(01:02:17):
cameras really popping out, protruding all along the cars. Because
these cameras and radars and light ours. They need to
use that to steer, to drive, to break into gas.
And you know, every time I talk about it, I
kind of asked this question, are you comfortable riding in
a fully autonomous self driving car? And I've done it

(01:02:40):
a few times, and you really have to kind of
I don't know. You may have to take a cloniprit
or something. You may have to just take a chill pill.
And it's like, okay, let me just trust the future,
big brother AI. A lot of people won't do it
for some reason. You are in Austin and you see
these things, though you have to go through Uber. There
is an Uber app because Uber partnered with Way specifically

(01:03:00):
in Austin, and you can request an Uber X or
an Uber Comfort or an Uber Comfort Electric and you
could be matched with a Weaimo vehicle. You're not gonna
be upcharged. If you don't want to take a driverless ride,
you do have the option to switch to a standard one.
But if you want to boost your chances of being
matched to a self driving car just for the heck

(01:03:22):
of it, you can go to your account in settings
and you can click autonomous vehicles and then you can
hit the toggle that says get more Weaimo rides. It
may be worth it just for you know, just the
giggles to drive in the thing. But we are going
to be seeing more and more of these driverless vehicles
all over the place, so off of the country and
all over the world. Amazon has its own company and

(01:03:44):
they planning to start their fully autonomous driving late this
summer in Los Angeles. They've got an interesting one called
zooks z X and these are weird looking machines. They
do not look like a car. How do I describe this?
I actually should put up a photo on my high
Tech texan x account if you want to go check

(01:04:05):
it out. High Tech Textan Zookes is the self driving
company that is owned by Amazon, and they it's like
a pod like Robotaxi. There's no steering wheel, there's no driver.
It's like a car. It's like a cabin car. It's
got four wheels and it's it looks like a pod

(01:04:26):
for lack of a better term. No no pedal, no
drivers say know anything, and they are gonna lost. Shockingly,
they're kind of following way mo'slee. They're gonna do it
in San Francisco, Vegas, Seattle, Miami, and Austin. These things
are head turners when you look at them, because they
certainly absolutely do not look like cars in these pod vehicles.

(01:04:49):
And it's it, I'll say it again, the self driving scene.
It's small, but it's becoming competitive. Zookes Waymo. There are
some of the bigger names in the game. Tesla, they
unveiled its service called Robotaxi. They announced it and unveiled it.
But the Legilist starting in the summer too in Austin.

(01:05:10):
I'll tell you what, man, if you're in Austin, you
better watch out this summer because that's at least three
that I've even mentioned already that are going to Austin.
There may not be a drive a car or a
vehicle with an actual, living, breathing driver in Austin come
later this year. But the question is why aren't they

(01:05:33):
more prevalent? Would you do it? And the answer quite
simply to me, it's a paradigm shift. As we have
known vehicles since Henry Ford created his little black Model
te we have had drivers. A human has been in
control of steering and looking and turning and switching lanes

(01:05:53):
and breaking and everything certainly not perfect, very fallible. Rex
there's crashes, there's incidents. But now we're leaving this up,
we're turning it over to machines with what we hope,
and I use the word hope, very smart technology. Software,

(01:06:15):
hardware that can sense from the fact, that can sense obstacles,
that can sense issues. But if you think about it
at at its top level, you're in the back of
a cab. Everybody's been in a cab generations, all right,
So you're feeling comfortable with, you know, a dude, a lady,

(01:06:38):
whoever it is. You don't know if they've just got
through driver's license, you don't know if they're eighty years old,
that they don't have quick wing flexes. The cab is generally,
I don't know, sometimes dirty. There's a you know, plexiglass,
you know, kind of barrier between the front seat and
the back seat. Your comfany that that person the driver's
not talking to you versus. And again I'm not endorsing

(01:07:00):
these fully autonomous driving cars, but now you're using the
best in what it is hopefully the safest autonomous cameras. Software,
clean cars, very clean that is that are going to
get you to the same places. It's that paradigm shift
we are used to someone driving us. We need as

(01:07:23):
a as a species, yeah, able to let robots, for
lack of a better term, drive us around and do
that job, just like we let robots do a lot
of other things. Did you ever is it? I get yes.
I mean, I'm gonna use this analogy. It's not exactly
the same. A lot of people have robotic vacuums. I

(01:07:44):
have a robotic vacuum. I love robotic vacuums, robo rock.
I've got several robotic vacuums in mops. It saves me
time because I don't have to sweep and mop. The
robot just walks around. Or I'm holding up an upright
vacuum slash mop and I'm doing it in there. It's
helping me. It's different because I'm still if I'm driving,

(01:08:04):
I still need to get point A to B. Is
it going to be a person or is it going
to be a robot? That really doesn't save me a
bunch of time. But we're trusting, and that's the point
I'm trying to make. We're trusting these robots, We're trusting software,
we're trusting hardware. To do things. We have long We
trust our video door bells, we trust our alarm systems.

(01:08:26):
We trust a lot of things. And I don't know
when that's gonna be. I have three boys. They're all
pretty much in their twenties. Let's just say they is
it their generation, not immediately, but certainly by the time
that they have kids. Yeah, they we are. I think
it could be much more trusting and much more open
to robots and paradigm shift of what's going to happen

(01:08:49):
again scenario. This is what I talk about. I like
creating and storing up not controversy, but just discussion, which
we have less than ten to twelve minutes for final
break here. If you want to call, say hi, hurry,
I'll give out the number one more time three four
six twenty nine textan three four six two nine textant.
Michael garfielders the name. This is the long run Hi
Tech TEPS and show. I know a few minutes of

(01:09:25):
this wonderful show and a beautiful week in a master's weekend,
and I do thank you for tuning in. Michael is
the name Michael Garfield. Thanks for following me at High
Tech Texts and Hi g H T E c H
T e X A N A lot of nice, fun,
funny comments. So what a life you leave? I saw
you hanging with all the celebs and stars at Final
Four weekend listen people. I've worked my off for a

(01:09:49):
very very long time. I'm a sports fan and I
am honored and lucky to get to do what I do.
By the way, thank you very much to Nissan. By
the way, Nissan is a partner with the NZ DOAA.
They were kind enough to help me out with some
tickets to the Final Four. If I ran into you
in San Antonio. Hello to WAI. Twelve hundred were my
radio show airs on every weekend. Basis very nice for

(01:10:10):
you to come up and say hi and thank me
for just some of the stuff that I do to please.
Don't thank me, I thank you. Don't thank me, I
thank you. Also thank a lot of our partners. We
couldn't do this show without a lot of our partners
and sponsors. Number One Total Wireless. That is right, total wireless.
Wherever you are, what city you're listening in. If you

(01:10:31):
need a really really good deal a you don't want
to spend an arm and a leg on data and
sell plan, check out Total wireless. They've got sixteen seventeen
stores in Houston, also same amount roughly in San Antonio, Dallas.
They're up there for you too. You can go to
Total dot Victra dot com. That's vic t R a

(01:10:55):
total dot Victra dot com. So make sure that's right.
That is right, and bring your own phone. You don't
need to buy a phone over there. And I'm telling
you what. You prepay it. You can get things you
get monthly twenty five bucks a month, unlimited five g
that's one of the plans if you sign up for
pre payment. And so they really do a good job.
And that is the selfur service that I currently have

(01:11:16):
right now, thanks also to US Coins and Jewelry. I
was at US Coins and Jewlry that is in Houston,
by the way, and this is the it's listen. Mother's
days coming up. We've got graduation come up. I actually
can I guess I can say this now. One of
my longtime friends, their son just graduated from med school
and they called me. They wanted to They know I

(01:11:38):
work with US Coins and Jewelry. They wanted to get
him a Rolex hooked him up with my man Will
over there. Shout out to Will and they got him.
I'm a I'm hoping they gave it to him. B
I hope he's not listening to blow the surprise. But anyway,
they went over to US Coins and Jewelry it Katie
Freeway right at Voss, and they found him exactly what
they were looking for. They've just got a whole new

(01:11:59):
stock of a ton of men and women rolexes. They're beautiful,
you can buy, you can sell, but they if you
want something specifically, they deal with rollies and so much
great jewelry and coins too, obviously that they can help
you out, So please tell Michael Garfield said, Hi, Okay,
there's a lot of Michaels that talk for him, but
I am Garfield Garfa doing some selling and pimping for

(01:12:21):
the great US Coins and Jewelry Cobo Bob's, which I'll
be having some snacks and chips at in about fifteen minutes,
thank you. And also Campbell's Compounding Pharmacy two locations in
the Houston area. Everything's getting more expensive compounding. If you
need specific medicine or whatever, that could be the way
to go. I certainly trust Campbell's compounding pharmacy. I've known
Lance Campbell twelve fifteen years, I think, and they do

(01:12:43):
a great job. When is sugar Land in one year?
The medical Center? Thanks also to Astounds with the Z
somebody asked me they want to create a website. They
sent me an email. It was Gavin Now, it was
a Facebook message listener named Gavin. They want to do
a e commerce website. They want to know if I
could recommend a web development company that also does se
O and e commerce. Astounds as t O U N

(01:13:06):
d Z dot com. You can talk to Steve Winter.
He is the president Day. I've known him forever in
a day. But these are the companies that I trust,
that I know, and I do appreciate you using patronizing
because they do help us keep this radio show absolutely
f R E E. One more question here just came
in on email. Michael. Here, you're talking a lot about

(01:13:28):
reviewing cars, thinking about the EV right now, and I
know I need to get one quick with all the
tariffs coming up. What I'm concerned about is the installation
or how to get a home charger. Some of these
companies I'm talking to they will quote unquote throw in
a charger that is installed in your garage. Are these
the best deal, the best value, WHI should I be
looking at? That's a great question, because buying electric vehicle

(01:13:52):
major life, major lifestyle adjustment, all right, And then considering
the EV, you need to find out where you need
to install your charger at home? You do need one,
You don't need one if you have a charger at work,
if you live near a charging station or a whole
foods or a dealership. No, but it's very dang convenient

(01:14:15):
if you have one at home, because you pull your
ride into your garage at night, you plug that in
and you're set to go. Now, the best way to
charge your EV is probably to install that EV charger
at home. It's it's not as simple as you think
because it does depend on what type of vehicle you have,
what kind of charger you want, and how fast you
want it to charge. So there's a lot of options.

(01:14:37):
So the first thing you need to do figure out
how much you're going to be driving your EV and
how quickly you'll need to recharge at home. Think about
how long your commute is. Are you going to be
coming home each night with the EV battery drained or
is it going to be maybe only thirty or forty
percent drained. Whatever questions you have, you need to site
if you want to level one charger or a level

(01:14:59):
two charger, And I'm just gonna keep it real simple
with terms like level one level two. A level one
charger is a standard electricity plug that can go into
any outlet in your home. You've got dozens and dozens
inside and outside your home. You know what it looks like.
Plug your blender into one. They are not the fastest charger,
as matter of fact, I'm gonna use the word slow.
They can give your vehicle maybe five miles of range

(01:15:22):
per hour of charging, if that does depend on your
charger and your vehicle and another factors. You want something faster,
you look at level two Level two charger. Much faster
charging output gives you about twenty five miles of range
per hour of charging, and that could potentially charge your
battery from zero to one hundred percent overnight. So if

(01:15:44):
your daily driving needs are under twenty miles, you probably
could do just fine with a level one. Anything more
than that, you probably want to go level two. If
you want a level one, you don't need any special
anybody or anything. You don't need an electrician simply buy
the right charging core for your vehicle, probably comes with it.
You plug it into the wall outlet, and you're set

(01:16:05):
to go, and then you wait, wait, wait, wait wait,
Level two your most likely want to call a professional. Now,
if you already have a special two forty volt outlet
in your garage, you could be good to go because
you simply plug that level two charger into that. And
what a two forty volt outlet is. Go look at
your dry your washer, dryer, Go look at your dryer.

(01:16:28):
That's the big semi round plug that has three prongs
in there. Stoves also have it too, and again we're
talking obviously electric stoves, electric dryers. That's a two forty.
If you don't have that installed in your garage or
one mighty manning, mighty long cable, which I don't recommend,
you're probably gonna go after an electrician come out, get

(01:16:50):
to your electricity box and install a level two charge.
All right. At that point, cost real quickly, because I'm
running out of time over here. Maybe one hundred dollars
an hour for labor. It's gonna take a few hours
to install it.

Speaker 6 (01:17:04):
You're gonna we defy the the charger, depending what it
is it could be four hundred and six hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
It's gonna cost one thousand dollars yourself for that for
installing the charger. Again, that's just spitballing right there. And
so that's from gen Geena's in Dallas. Jean, thank you
very much for that point. With that, I am gonna
have to shut up and I can finally, you know,
take some losses for my boys or some nice big
urban jewlip season coming up. As we get to the
Kentucky Derby, folks go enjoy the Master's friends and let's

(01:17:33):
just help. Maybe a Texan one by Scotty Shebook, it's
a shepbook or somebody like that. People. Thank you to
Brian Erickson, thank you to Callum Reid and Will and
everybody Else's.

Speaker 6 (01:17:41):
Keep me on the air in these three great cities.
Have a great three to enjoy the sun and be
cool and that we'll.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Talk to you next week five year on the High
Texts Show.

Speaker 6 (01:17:49):
My name is Garth.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
Right now, my show is oh aah